Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-03-05
The Tobacco , Tax.
CONTINUED nom last weekly

ANON w viz pAOol1 bOboSSO "e ~'N'N
cents all around, loss in stemming be-
ing one-third, makes the leaf or stem
med tobacco cost twelve cents. Then
to manufacture it will cost four cents,
aggregating sixteen cents for the man
uiactured tobacco Then allow the
manufactures the profit of so per cent
by the Wholesale, and he gets twenty
four cents pound, and then allow the
retailer OF it fifty per cent, and the CON
sumers will be able to buy it at thirty
six cents. Whereas now the producer
finds dull market at five cents, and
the consuMer pays not less than seven
ty-Hve cents, as evidenced by wholesale
prices, ranging from twenty-five cents
for the lowest to ninety-five cents for
the best, which will at least average
fifty cents by whole sale and allowing
the retailer the same per cent OF profit,
viz. fifty per cent, it reaches the con-
sumers on an average of seventy five
cents pound.
All this loss of Is millions annually
to the producers OF tobacco, each and
every one of whom pays as much tax
on woolen, Gotten, silk, shoes and all
other goods, as any other class of pro-
ducers pays, not even excepting the
the protected sugar planter. Yet in
the face of this tax outrage even the
Courier-Journal can say that in as much
as the tobacco theiving tax is not as
heavy as it used to be, he thinks the
tobacco toiler ought to be satisfied to
wait until other producers are relieved.
Relieved OF what? Not another man
except the poor tobacco grower cult
Yates one solitary field product in all
the longitude and latitude of the United
States that is taxed. The consumers Of
tobacco, outside of the small sugar pro-
tected district, pay their respective
quotas OF taxes on all other articles by
them worn, used and consumed just as
fully as do now consumers Of tobacco.
Not only so, the producers and con-
sumers OF tobacco bear the hurt OF bat
tie as bravely as do now consumers Of
it. Nown reason for.continuing the
tax on tobacco can be given.
The iron tax is too microscopic and
infnitestimal to be felt by anybody who
is not railroad lord, and they would
rob the farmer as unsparingly as now
if the iron tax we're entirely removed.
Public indignation alone can stay their
greed, take the tax off tobacco, then
let the tax on wooden and cotton goods
be reduced, is what the farmer wants
and must have.
The Courier-Journal exhibits igno-
rance of the fact when he says twenty
three centsa year on the iron the to-
bacco grower consumes is more than
he loses by the tobacco tax, and he is
also mistaken in the idea that the to-
bacco consumer pays more of the tax
than the tobacco pays. The facts are
these, the tobacco grower Ito each
handy loses about $75 year by reason
of the low price he is compelled to take
because of the tax restricting con-
sumption, whereas the consumer is
forced by reason of the tax to pay
double as much for what he gets, and
as each consumer would require if
fully supplied about twenty-five dollars
a year, his loss is about ten dollars.
But as any intelligent man can under
stand, as one grower OF tobacco can
make as much as about 100 men will
consume, the heaviest individual loss by
far is sustained by the grower in con-
sequence of the diminish to him
caused by the tax.
Here the impoverished tobacco growers
and consumers are robbed OF seventy
seven millions annually for no favor in
return, even after the consumers buy
one-third more than they now consume.
The iron tax as to this is as mouse is
to wolf in the tobacco growers beei
stall. 1t ought to be remembered by
the tobacco grower, and the Courier
Journal and by congress that this tax
was placed on tobacco, in order to aid
those vino paid taxes on bank checks
profession and commercial papers, and
incomes, when tobacco was quite able
to render the assistance exacted OF it, al
war measure, for revenue, because
then such was the demand for it a:
enabled the producer Of it to realize $40
and $40 and even $75a hundred pounds
for it. Then the tobacco grower could
pay for all his family supplies and have
a thousand dollars, or so surplus chang,
with which to lift a mortgage on hi
home, for each hogshead, or will
which to educate his children, and con